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The Middle East's first natural history museum is designed like Noah's Ark

When visitors enter the Middle East’s first natural history museum here next week, they'll spot a dramatic re-creation of the Great Bird Migration, when a half-billion birds make a stopover in Israel's Hula Valley en route from Europe to Africa.

TEL AVIV, Israel – When visitors enter the Middle East’s first natural history museum here next week, they'll spot a dramatic re-creation of the Great Bird Migration, when a half-billion birds make a stopover in Israel's Hula Valley en route from Europe to Africa.

The ultra-modern museum designed like Noah's Ark "is a symbol of conservation and of bringing all the world’s animals together,” said Tamar Dayan, who chairs the $40 million Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, set to open Monday in Tel Aviv.

The 100,000-square-foot museum is a tribute to Israel’s indigenous flora and fauna, as well as a battle cry for preservation, as climate change, urban development and man-made devastation wreak havoc on the region’s rich ecosystems, according to the curators.

“It’s unusual to have a museum established in the 21st century, but this is the time,” Dayan said. “We’ve realized the challenges are huge, but if we don’t deal with them now, it’s going to be too late.”

In addition to being the site of ancient civilizations, “Israel is very lucky to be located on the axis of a few continents, which means a huge diversity in species and different natural phenomena,” said Hadas Zemer Ben-Ari, the museum's head curator.

"The Great Bird Migration" at the museum entrance.(Photo: Shira Rubin)

Among the 5.5 million specimens on display is the collection of German zoologist and Catholic priest Ernst Johann Schmitz, who lived in Israel a century ago. Schmitz’s taxidermy pieces include crocodiles, cheetahs and bears – all now extinct here.

The museum has been in progress for more than two decades. It is funded by the American billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, a frequent donor to Israeli initiatives who keeps a menagerie of exotic animals and plants on his estate north of Manhattan.

The collection of German priest and zoologist Ernst Schmitz includes several Israeli species that have gone extinct within the past century.(Photo: Shai Ben-Efraim, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History)

The museum’s collections “will be used for research for biology, ecological systems and nature in general, by hundreds of scientists from all over Israel,” said Alon Zask with the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, one of several government agencies that have backed the project.

The museum's labs and research centers – on display to the general public through an open, almost jarringly intimate window – will host hundreds of international researchers who will study samples of the natural world represented throughout the building.

Also on display is a 20-foot-long interactive map of the country, showcasing current problems with the environment. The Sea of Galilee, near the border with Syria and Israel’s only freshwater source, is being over-pumped. The Dead Sea, dropping at an alarming rate of more than 3 feet every year, has lost one of the world’s most complex and vibrant ecosystems.

Israel, a tiny, arid country that is home to more than 8 million people, is also among the most densely populated in the world.

Tamar Dayan is the chair of the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.(Photo: Shira Rubin)

Climate change has compounded Israel’s already scarce natural supplies. While the country has invested billions of dollars in desalination and wastewater recycling plants, a five-year drought has plunged Israel’s water tables to the lowest level in about 100 years, according to the Israel Energy and Water Ministry.

The museum’s “human impact” exhibition seeks to convey, especially to young students, the urgency for improving lifestyles and behavior, such as ending littering or minimizing light pollution along the coasts that endanger sea turtle populations.

“We’re losing species and ecosystems at an unprecedented rate,” Dayan said. “If we go about business as usual, we will end up losing as much as half of the species on the face of the Earth.”